Latest editorial
Police look on as protesters gather outside the Business and Trade department in London to show solidarity with Palestine, as they campaign against military arms being manufactured in the UK and sent to Israel, May 1, 2024
A BLACK NHS doctor is investigating a claim against the police after he was allegedly forcefully arrested at a pro-Palestine protest outside HMP Bronzefield.
On December 17, 2025, Dr Ayo Moiett spoke on the telephone with Qesser Zuhrah, who was arrested for alleged participation in the Palestine Action Filton 24 breaking-and-entering of an Elbit Systems factory in Bristol in June 2024.
She was being held in the prison and on day 46 of a hunger strike.
Dr Moiett’s professional medical opinion was that Ms Zuhrah could have been just hours from death.
By this point, she was so weak that she was unable to stand, campaigners say, but the prison service refused to call an ambulance.
Following eight hours of Dr Moiett and other protesters making the case that Ms Zuhrah needed urgent medical attention, the prison service called an ambulance.
But as soon as it arrived, the police grabbed Dr Moiett, arrested him and shoved him into a van.
He was held first in the police van and then for a further five hours at a police station.
Good Law Project are now working with Dr Moiett to investigate a claim to determine whether the arrest was unjustified, disproportionate, or influenced by racially discriminatory factors.
Dr Moiett said: “I felt surrounded, restricted and so claustrophobic.
“I do feel the manner I was arrested in was racist and it was disproportionate.
“When I think of myself as a black man and the racist and negative stereotyping that we all go through — criminal, aggressive, angry, violent — I do feel that was projected on to me.”
Good Law Project campaigns manager Charlene Pink said: “People of colour are bearing the brunt of the government’s brutal crackdown on protest rights.
“But arresting a doctor and bundling him into the back of a van for trying to call an ambulance is a new low.
“We’re pushing back against Labour’s authoritarian streak, which puts all of us and our freedoms to protest at risk.”
Six months after Dr Moiett’s arrest, the Crown Prosecution Service informed him that they were taking no further action.
As Palestine Action prisoners go weeks without food, alleging dangerous neglect and detention without trial, campaigners warn that a near-total media blackout is hiding a crisis that could turn fatal – and fuel a growing wave of public anger. ELIZABETH SHORT reports